Santorum among those backing Hardiman

Those pushing Hardiman, including former presidential candidate Rick Santorum, are explicitly appealing to Trump’s populism.

“I just think this is a signature moment for the president,” said Santorum, who has been in touch with Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and other administration officials to lobby on Hardiman’s behalf.

“You wouldn’t know he’s a federal judge. You just wouldn’t,” Santorum said of Hardiman, who said he spent time with in Washington during the inauguration. Santorum said the responses when people met Hardiman were the same: “’That guy is going to go on the Supreme Court? He’s such a good guy, he’s such a real person.’”

“You have Gorsuch, who comes from a pedigree, a background — in the vernacular you would say he’s an elite — went to Columbia and Oxford and Harvard and clerked for the Supreme Court and his parents were in the Reagan cabinet which is a terrific pedigree…He would be a very traditional pick and would fit in with all the other Harvard and Yale-educated lawyers on the court,” Santorum said. “The one thing I’ve always liked about Tom is Tom is not your Harvard, Yale lawyer.”

Santorum was a PA senator when Hardiman was chosen for the district court in 2003.

The article reports that “Gorsuch remains the favorite in elite conservative legal circles.”